The NZWU18 team once again completed a very successful tournament. After having won the tournament last year at their first attempt, the team competed this year in the Top Division against the Singapore Women’s Senior Team, Thailand Women’s Senior Team and Chinese Taipei Women’s Under-18 team.

After a short but intense camp in Auckland which included a game against those female players not competing for the Ice Fernz or U18s, the team headed across to Kuala Lumpur.

The tournament was held in Malaysia’s brand new ice rink, MYNISS (Malaysian National Ice Sport Stadium). The facilities were excellent, with the NZL dressing room the best that most of the team had ever seen, let alone been in.

After a couple of days to acclimatise, the opening ceremony for the top division was held on Wednesday afternoon, local time with the first game against the Singapore Senior Women’s Team on Thursday at 3.30 pm, local time.

After a comfortable 14:3 win, the teams had a day off on Friday, apart from a 30 minute practice session in the early afternoon. The team used the free morning to visit the Petronas Twin Towers, a well known landmark.

Saturday’s game was against the strongest team in the top Division, Chinese Taipei Under 18s. Although the coaches tried different player combinations and the team worked incredibly hard, they were defeated by a better team, 4:1.

On Sunday there followed another tough game which this time ended favourably with New Zealand winning by one goal, 1:0, the same goal difference as last year but with less overall goals scored.

This meant the team finished the tournament having won two games and lost one, putting them in silver medal position.

On the last day the team took a trip to a local cultural landmark, the Batu Caves. It was a fascinating site and enabled the team to gain a small insight into Malaysian culture.

Please see the team’s facebook page for more information and photos of the campaign: https://www.facebook.com/NZU18W/?ref=page_internal